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The Marriage of William Ashe by Mrs. Humphry Ward
page 40 of 588 (06%)
"You're a good friend!" said Darrell, not without something of a sneer.

Ashe was ruffled by the tone, but tried not to show it. He merely
insisted that he knew Lady Grosville to be a bit of an old cat; that of
course there was something up; but it seemed a shame for those at least
who accepted Madame d'Estrées' hospitality to believe the worst. There
was a curious mixture of carelessness and delicacy in his remarks, very
characteristic of the man. It appeared as though he was at once too
indolent to go into the matter, and too chivalrous to talk about it.

Darrell presently maintained a rather angry silence. No man likes to be
checked in his story, especially when the check implies something like
a snub from his best friend. Suddenly, memory brought before him the
little picture of Ashe and Lady Kitty together--he bending over her, in
his large, handsome geniality, and she looking up. Darrell felt a twinge
of jealousy--then disgust. Really, men like Ashe had the world too
easily their own way. That they should pose, besides, was too much.




III


Rather more than a fortnight after the evening at Madame d'Estrées',
William Ashe found himself in a Midland train on his way to the
Cambridgeshire house of Lady Grosville. While the April country slipped
past him--like some blanched face to which life and color are
returning--Ashe divided his time between an idle skimming of the
Saturday papers and a no less idle dreaming of Kitty Bristol. He had
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